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Elie de Combys

Joined 04/04/2008

Quebec City, Canada

Please note that my name isn't Ellie, an English female name, but Élie, a French male name. Here's a snippet of my life story : I was a music student in college, but had to drop out because of multiple sclerosis. And believe it or not, this has a lot to do about the things I'll be posting here from now on. Indeed, years before my diagnosis I realized that gluten really didn't do it for me. It made me feel ill, in hard-to-desribe ways. My celiac antibodies test came back negative, though, so I started eating it again. And that's when the MS hit full force. So, needless to say, I stopped again. Since then, I learned that it was not my imagination : gluten plays a role in autoimmune disease. So I stay away from it. My adventures with foods started in 2007, when I first noticed how sick I was becoming. I explored a whole lot or diets or lifestyles, including paleo, ayurvedic, gluten/casein/soy-free, ketogenic, chemical-free, and so on. All of these have taught me things, and I kept the habits that made me feel well. In fact, I have recently seen studies about MS that confirmed a lot of my intuitions and encouraged me to apply some principles even firmer : my grocery bag is now 100% organic, since a lot of the pesticides used in modern agriculture can have a neurotoxic effect (actually, that's why they kill pests), which is a risk I'll avoid with all my might, since MS is neurologic. Other things that influence my way of eating are my political and ethical views. As they say, buying is voting. So I weigh the impact of (almost, I'm not perfect) every purchase I make. But I'm on a very low buget, since I'm not apt to work, and that also comes into account, and explains my mostly vegan diet. Indeed, cooking vegan from scratch and whole foods is the less expensive way of eating organic, but I am by no means a true vegan, and as much as I admire their dedication and recognize the positive social impacts of veganism, I'm more of a believer in small scale, humane and organic (or better : holistic) agriculture. I also have a passion for traditional Quebecois (Quebecker) food, which is my cultural heritage, and Syrian cuisine, which is my mom's culture (and so a little part of mine). So, what I post might be a little erratic if you consider it from the modern trends perspective. And my older posts might not be consistent with what I'll be posting in the future. But still, what is consistent is that I post only the recipes I have tested and perfected myself, with the help of the hungry mouths that lurk into my appartment.